Most of us do not make millions of dollars self-publishing. We're usually starving artists, rubbing pennies together to keep warm while we desperately pray that we'll have the money to fund our next book before we're finished with it.
I've created and purchased a few covers. I've had some trials and errors with my experiences. I've lost money because of it, but I don't want others to make the same mistakes. Here are some things I've learned:
1. Don't Make The Covers Yourself
Unless you know where to get fonts and pictures for free (or you are a professional graphic designer), don't try to make the covers yourself. I made my first two covers myself and I had no idea what I was doing. I bought expensive fonts and pictures that wound up costing more than if I had hired someone else to do it. The quality of the cover at the end of the project was inferior and therefore sold me very few books (so I lost money by earning less money.) Also, my time is precious and I would have been better off writing rather than working on my cover.
2. Premade Covers Are Cheap
Most cover artists like making covers in their spare time. It's nice to be able to ask for exactly what you want, but cheaper to purchase one made ahead of time. It may take a long time to find a cover that fits your book, but if you keep looking, you'll find something eventually.
Most premade covers cost about $20-$60. While most custom covers cost anywhere from $100-$200.
3. Purchase Several At Once
This is a huge secret that's really important to know. Most cover artists want to encourage you to buy several covers at once. They want to get rid of their covers, so that they can make new ones. It usually won't be on their web-site, but most of them have deals where if you buy more than one cover from them at the same time, you will get a certain amount of money off the total price.
4. Know What You Want
If you decide to get a custom cover, make sure that you know exactly what you want ahead of time and be detailed when explaining what you want. The less times that they have to edit the cover to meet your needs, the less they will charge you.
It's even better if you have a font or a picture that you can give them ahead of time.
5. Simple Is Best
The simpler the cover, the cheaper it usually costs. It takes less time to create and less images/fonts, all of which ramp up the price.
6. Search For Covers Before You Need Them
If you wait until you are done with your book before you buy the cover, you'll be in a rush to find one. You'll wind up paying more and getting an inferior quality product because you're impatient to get published.
It's better to search occasionally online for covers and purchase them as you find them.
7. Don't Be Impulsive
Unless you find a cover that's perfect or an artist that you like so much that you have zero desire to work with anyone else, don't be impulsive. Wait a few days when you find a cover that you like and see if you still like it. It will help prevent you from having to purchase a new cover later because you found one that you liked better.
8. Original Artwork Doesn't Matter
Most people want a cover that doesn't look like anyone else's. I have found authors who have the same art on their covers as I do on mine and it's no big deal. Until you are making a lot of money or are into photography already, it will cost you a lot to organized a photo shoot. There's the set, the camera man, and the model to pay. Original pictures drawn by artists usually look amateurish and are expensive. It's better to go with clipart.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Reality vs Fiction
Recently, I started reading "The Fault In Our Stars". I love it. It sounds like a depressing book because it's about teenagers who are dying of cancer. It is depressing, but not so sad that it's difficult to read because the author knew how to pull off the subject well.
The characters seem so deep and real to me that I immediately thought,"The author must have known someone who had cancer as a teenager or gone through cancer himself." I found out later that indeed, he had worked with young cancer patients. So in order to tell us a fictional story, he had to add a bit of truth in there from his own life experiences. That made his story seem more real to me.
It just made me think of the contradictions that exist in writing.
Like, that we work so hard to make our writing so easy to read. In fact, authors are so notoriously good at making writing seem easy, it's why most people don't realize how hard it is to write a book until they give it a try for the first time. I can't count how many times I've heard people say that they could write a better book than an author they hate. I would never say that! I know how difficult it is to write even a "terrible" book!
Another one is how we often make up these stories, which are basically lies (because they aren't real, but we are trying to make them seem real), in order to share with you truths about how we view the world. There are many famous religious figures who have taught people through stories. Because when you tell them your opinion directly, it can be more offensive than illustrating it with a hypothetical story. Hypothetical stories cause readers to think and draw their own conclusions even if you guided them there. And it gives a situation in which the truth you are trying to express is being applied to real life.
The characters seem so deep and real to me that I immediately thought,"The author must have known someone who had cancer as a teenager or gone through cancer himself." I found out later that indeed, he had worked with young cancer patients. So in order to tell us a fictional story, he had to add a bit of truth in there from his own life experiences. That made his story seem more real to me.
It just made me think of the contradictions that exist in writing.
Like, that we work so hard to make our writing so easy to read. In fact, authors are so notoriously good at making writing seem easy, it's why most people don't realize how hard it is to write a book until they give it a try for the first time. I can't count how many times I've heard people say that they could write a better book than an author they hate. I would never say that! I know how difficult it is to write even a "terrible" book!
Another one is how we often make up these stories, which are basically lies (because they aren't real, but we are trying to make them seem real), in order to share with you truths about how we view the world. There are many famous religious figures who have taught people through stories. Because when you tell them your opinion directly, it can be more offensive than illustrating it with a hypothetical story. Hypothetical stories cause readers to think and draw their own conclusions even if you guided them there. And it gives a situation in which the truth you are trying to express is being applied to real life.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Moving
Things have been really crazy for me this month. I've been meaning to make this post for a week, but only got the chance to do so right now.
As of April 1st, I live in a new place. I've been slowly moving in every day.
And later this month, I am also getting married.
I have barely had a moment to do anything except for focus on these two things. It's exciting, but I really wish I could get some of my books out sooner. I'll do what I can!
As of April 1st, I live in a new place. I've been slowly moving in every day.
And later this month, I am also getting married.
I have barely had a moment to do anything except for focus on these two things. It's exciting, but I really wish I could get some of my books out sooner. I'll do what I can!
Monday, March 24, 2014
Realization
Since I wrote that last blog post, I've been thinking about the comments on the blog and about my writing, trying to figure out what was wrong lately. I think I know what it is. I took the passion out of my writing. I was trying too hard to please people. Thinking too much about how I wanted to sell more.
I don't know what most people believe an author's style is when it comes to writing, but to me it's how the author views the world around them. What an author finds interesting, what experiences she or he has had, the way they sympathize with people and process things are all going to color the way they write a story. Even the way an author speaks or has heard people speak is going to affect their writing. It's why a bunch of different people can take a similar idea, like writing a romance novel about vampires, and make it into totally different stories from each other. Because they view the world differently, so they are going to take the characters in different directions and focus on different aspects of what it means to be those characters. One writer, who is more in touch with feelings, might write more about what a character is thinking, while another, who studies martial arts in their spare time, might write about fighting more.
I've been very insecure about my writing style lately. I don't get jealous of other authors who sell more than me, I usually instead try to read their writing and figure out what it is about them that makes them better than me. See if I can improve myself through their example.
I notice that a lot of popular writers are ones who view the world like a fairytale-the kind that tune out real life horror stories, like people dying or being hurt-and favor a rosy view of the world. I, on the other hand, want to understand people's suffering. I have a deep admiration for characters that struggled and were at the end of their rope. I love reading stories that are positive and upbeat, but I don't think most of those stories fit my style of writing. I just kept thinking that you should write what you'd want to read and I know that I read a lot of upbeat stories where the characters aren't necessarily as emotional as my characters are, so I thought I'd try to write them, too.
I've been trying to change myself to make people happier and to sell more books. The only way to improve as a writer is to change, but to change the way you fundamentally write also takes a lot of the passion from the story. It starts feeling more like a stranger wrote your story than that you did. You have more trouble connecting with the characters because you didn't put much of your life into them.
I was starting to feel like passion for writing was bad. That it clouds your judgement of what is good that you wrote and what needs to change. I might connect, personally, with a certain chapter that I wrote, but readers might hate it, and I shouldn't blind myself from their perspective.
I still enjoy writing even if I put very little of myself into it, but it's not quite as addicting. When critique partners tell me I need to change something, I'm trying to fix it according to their brains, instead of finding a creative way inside my own brain to make the story better. It becomes mechanical and not my own.
But the passion is coming back and I'm very excited about that!
I don't know what most people believe an author's style is when it comes to writing, but to me it's how the author views the world around them. What an author finds interesting, what experiences she or he has had, the way they sympathize with people and process things are all going to color the way they write a story. Even the way an author speaks or has heard people speak is going to affect their writing. It's why a bunch of different people can take a similar idea, like writing a romance novel about vampires, and make it into totally different stories from each other. Because they view the world differently, so they are going to take the characters in different directions and focus on different aspects of what it means to be those characters. One writer, who is more in touch with feelings, might write more about what a character is thinking, while another, who studies martial arts in their spare time, might write about fighting more.
I've been very insecure about my writing style lately. I don't get jealous of other authors who sell more than me, I usually instead try to read their writing and figure out what it is about them that makes them better than me. See if I can improve myself through their example.
I notice that a lot of popular writers are ones who view the world like a fairytale-the kind that tune out real life horror stories, like people dying or being hurt-and favor a rosy view of the world. I, on the other hand, want to understand people's suffering. I have a deep admiration for characters that struggled and were at the end of their rope. I love reading stories that are positive and upbeat, but I don't think most of those stories fit my style of writing. I just kept thinking that you should write what you'd want to read and I know that I read a lot of upbeat stories where the characters aren't necessarily as emotional as my characters are, so I thought I'd try to write them, too.
I've been trying to change myself to make people happier and to sell more books. The only way to improve as a writer is to change, but to change the way you fundamentally write also takes a lot of the passion from the story. It starts feeling more like a stranger wrote your story than that you did. You have more trouble connecting with the characters because you didn't put much of your life into them.
I was starting to feel like passion for writing was bad. That it clouds your judgement of what is good that you wrote and what needs to change. I might connect, personally, with a certain chapter that I wrote, but readers might hate it, and I shouldn't blind myself from their perspective.
I still enjoy writing even if I put very little of myself into it, but it's not quite as addicting. When critique partners tell me I need to change something, I'm trying to fix it according to their brains, instead of finding a creative way inside my own brain to make the story better. It becomes mechanical and not my own.
But the passion is coming back and I'm very excited about that!
Friday, March 14, 2014
Confidence
I haven't been feeling the most confident about my writing lately.
I bought some covers for stories I've been working on and shared them on the blog a few months ago. I like to give out any news that I can as soon as I can, but now I sort of regret it.
One of the hardest things for me is writing the blurbs on the back of a book I am publishing about which books are going to come next. I want people to get excited about the next books, maybe even look for them after they are published, but at the same time, I can never really tell for sure what story I am going to complete next.
Even if I already started writing them, whose to say I can finish them? What if the next book doesn't turn out right somehow? Should I publish it anyway just because I promised people I would? I doubt that I could do that, but I feel like I'm letting people down if I don't.
Even if I finish writing a book, like I did with these most recent books, there's always the possibility that I'll show them to critique partners and suddenly decide that I hate them, which happened to me lately. Ugh. I worked for months on giving and receving critiques. Now that I'm adding the critiques to my notes for my story, I feel like my story is the worst story ever.
On the positive side, I got really great critiques from my critique partners! If I can incorporate all of this stuff and fix my story completely, then it's going to be the best story ever.
On the other hand, the critiques I got were discouraging. I'm afraid it's not possible to fix it. Which is exactly why if I can correct this mountain of problems, it will become the best story ever.
In fact, one of the biggest critiques I received was that people absolutely hate my main character. Agh! Does this mean I have to change her story entirely to make her more likeable or can I just add little details here and there, where she does nice things, to make her more redeemable?
Not to mention that there are problems with the pacing and the romance of the characters, which drives the story. I even messed up a bit on some of the fantasy setting and rules.
I love being a self-published author, but to some degree, there is something I'm sad about when it comes to not having a publishing company. A publishing company would force me to focus.
Publishing Company (PC): "You finished romance novel 1, now write romance novel 2."
Me: "But I want to work on fantasy novel 3!"
PC: "I don't care! We are paying you to finish romance novel 2."
Me: "But I hate romance novel 2!"
PC: "Do it anyway."
And I'd get it done without procrastinating by writing blog posts, going on facebook, or working on other story ideas I have. And if it was really terrible when I was done, they would tell me. I can never truly know on my own whether it's a good or bad idea to publish something. I just have to do it and see what happens. Then I have to take full responsibility for what I've done either way.
Every new book you write, you want to be your big book. The one where people notice you. The one you can use to make a lot of money and use to justify to your friends about why you don't have a day job.
It gives me a headache to think about it.
I bought some covers for stories I've been working on and shared them on the blog a few months ago. I like to give out any news that I can as soon as I can, but now I sort of regret it.
One of the hardest things for me is writing the blurbs on the back of a book I am publishing about which books are going to come next. I want people to get excited about the next books, maybe even look for them after they are published, but at the same time, I can never really tell for sure what story I am going to complete next.
Even if I already started writing them, whose to say I can finish them? What if the next book doesn't turn out right somehow? Should I publish it anyway just because I promised people I would? I doubt that I could do that, but I feel like I'm letting people down if I don't.
Even if I finish writing a book, like I did with these most recent books, there's always the possibility that I'll show them to critique partners and suddenly decide that I hate them, which happened to me lately. Ugh. I worked for months on giving and receving critiques. Now that I'm adding the critiques to my notes for my story, I feel like my story is the worst story ever.
On the positive side, I got really great critiques from my critique partners! If I can incorporate all of this stuff and fix my story completely, then it's going to be the best story ever.
On the other hand, the critiques I got were discouraging. I'm afraid it's not possible to fix it. Which is exactly why if I can correct this mountain of problems, it will become the best story ever.
In fact, one of the biggest critiques I received was that people absolutely hate my main character. Agh! Does this mean I have to change her story entirely to make her more likeable or can I just add little details here and there, where she does nice things, to make her more redeemable?
Not to mention that there are problems with the pacing and the romance of the characters, which drives the story. I even messed up a bit on some of the fantasy setting and rules.
I love being a self-published author, but to some degree, there is something I'm sad about when it comes to not having a publishing company. A publishing company would force me to focus.
Publishing Company (PC): "You finished romance novel 1, now write romance novel 2."
Me: "But I want to work on fantasy novel 3!"
PC: "I don't care! We are paying you to finish romance novel 2."
Me: "But I hate romance novel 2!"
PC: "Do it anyway."
And I'd get it done without procrastinating by writing blog posts, going on facebook, or working on other story ideas I have. And if it was really terrible when I was done, they would tell me. I can never truly know on my own whether it's a good or bad idea to publish something. I just have to do it and see what happens. Then I have to take full responsibility for what I've done either way.
Every new book you write, you want to be your big book. The one where people notice you. The one you can use to make a lot of money and use to justify to your friends about why you don't have a day job.
It gives me a headache to think about it.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Your Opinions Matter
I have a confession to make and that confession is that I experience a lot of self-doubt when it comes to my writing. It's been bad lately. I received a lot of feedback from critique partners. I don't know about other authors, but I agreed with almost all of it. I'm afraid that I can't fix my book. I'm afraid I will have to move on and work on other stories, even though I've been working on these two for a long time and already announced that I will be publishing them.
I used to have a second pen name, but I wound up deleting all the stories I self-published under that pen name recently. This was also how I found out that you can't officially "unpublish" anything on Amazon. It won't be sold anymore, but records of its existence will always be there. I decided those stories weren't written well enough anymore.
I think I experience this self-doubt partly because I'm not as emotionally attached to books that I've already written as most authors are. Sometimes after I finish writing and editing a book, I wind up absolutely hating it.
To tell you the truth, when I self-published Pandora's Mistake, I hated it a little bit. I like my Medusa's Desire story, but feel a lot of times like it might not be the kind of story most people would like to read. I was wanting to write according to formulas more. And I tried to tweak the way I write a bit in the stories I've been working on lately. I want to experiment and give people more of what they would like.
But then I started getting a bunch of awesome and encouraging reviews. At the time, I was thinking about quitting writing the Fate of Eros series or at least putting it on hold for a long time. But when I read those reviews, they encouraged me. People were enjoying my writing. I was motivated suddenly to want to work on the next book about Sisyphus.
With indie authors, we don't have publishers telling us what to write. All we have is our readers, so your reviews actually mean a lot to us. I'm not saying that we will get angry if you write bad reviews. I am saying though that sometimes, if you really like a story, and tell an indie author about it, they might be encouraged to work on that series more, just for your sake. We want our readers to be happy.
Authors are more accessible than ever, especially indie authors. As readers you have more power than you think. In the past, it was publishing companies deciding what should be published and advertised to make popular. Now, it's you deciding what should be popular. I like that readers have power.
I used to have a second pen name, but I wound up deleting all the stories I self-published under that pen name recently. This was also how I found out that you can't officially "unpublish" anything on Amazon. It won't be sold anymore, but records of its existence will always be there. I decided those stories weren't written well enough anymore.
I think I experience this self-doubt partly because I'm not as emotionally attached to books that I've already written as most authors are. Sometimes after I finish writing and editing a book, I wind up absolutely hating it.
To tell you the truth, when I self-published Pandora's Mistake, I hated it a little bit. I like my Medusa's Desire story, but feel a lot of times like it might not be the kind of story most people would like to read. I was wanting to write according to formulas more. And I tried to tweak the way I write a bit in the stories I've been working on lately. I want to experiment and give people more of what they would like.
But then I started getting a bunch of awesome and encouraging reviews. At the time, I was thinking about quitting writing the Fate of Eros series or at least putting it on hold for a long time. But when I read those reviews, they encouraged me. People were enjoying my writing. I was motivated suddenly to want to work on the next book about Sisyphus.
With indie authors, we don't have publishers telling us what to write. All we have is our readers, so your reviews actually mean a lot to us. I'm not saying that we will get angry if you write bad reviews. I am saying though that sometimes, if you really like a story, and tell an indie author about it, they might be encouraged to work on that series more, just for your sake. We want our readers to be happy.
Authors are more accessible than ever, especially indie authors. As readers you have more power than you think. In the past, it was publishing companies deciding what should be published and advertised to make popular. Now, it's you deciding what should be popular. I like that readers have power.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Update On Things
First of all, I just want to say that I've been feeling really energetic and happy. I didn't talk about it on here before, but I spent the last few years constantly exhausted. I didn't know why, but it was a battle every day just to get out of bed. When I discovered my diabetes, I honestly didn't know how I was going to have the energy to exercise daily. Now, on the other hand, I've been exercising and eating an extremely low carb diet. I feel better than I have in a long time. It was all that extra sugar in my blood making me feel sick!
I used to tell my Mom all the time that I felt like someone three times my age, but now I feel young again. You don't realize sometimes how sick you were feeling sometimes until you get a lot better. It makes me feel excited about life.
Also, I've found more time to devote to working on writing, which is great, so hopefully I'll be getting more things done soon!
What I've been working on lately is critiquing a lot. For some reason, a few months ago, I decided I wanted about seven critique partners to help me critique my god of light stories. I sometimes think I can do more than I actually can. I thought I could read and critique seven novels in a month. After all, I know some editors who are amazing at their job and can do things like that. But I am nowhere near their level, so a few months later and I'm still working on it.
But finally, I see the end in sight and can start rewriting my god of light stories hopefully.
I've also been adding to some of my other stories here and there when I have the time.
I feel like I've learned so much about writing. I tend to underwrite instead of overwrite if that makes sense. I leave out details. I forget to show important events happening. I skip whole scenes and assume the reader will get it anyway. At least, that's how my writing is before my critique partners see it. One of my critique partners convinced me to add whole chapters to my Medusa's Desire novel for instance!
Because of my critique partners and their constant drilling into my head that I need to work on this, I've gotten better at explaining things, developing characters, and showing my story rather than telling parts of it. I learned that details aren't boring, they make the story deeper a lot of times.
There's always more to learn and improve on as a writer.
I used to tell my Mom all the time that I felt like someone three times my age, but now I feel young again. You don't realize sometimes how sick you were feeling sometimes until you get a lot better. It makes me feel excited about life.
Also, I've found more time to devote to working on writing, which is great, so hopefully I'll be getting more things done soon!
What I've been working on lately is critiquing a lot. For some reason, a few months ago, I decided I wanted about seven critique partners to help me critique my god of light stories. I sometimes think I can do more than I actually can. I thought I could read and critique seven novels in a month. After all, I know some editors who are amazing at their job and can do things like that. But I am nowhere near their level, so a few months later and I'm still working on it.
But finally, I see the end in sight and can start rewriting my god of light stories hopefully.
I've also been adding to some of my other stories here and there when I have the time.
I feel like I've learned so much about writing. I tend to underwrite instead of overwrite if that makes sense. I leave out details. I forget to show important events happening. I skip whole scenes and assume the reader will get it anyway. At least, that's how my writing is before my critique partners see it. One of my critique partners convinced me to add whole chapters to my Medusa's Desire novel for instance!
Because of my critique partners and their constant drilling into my head that I need to work on this, I've gotten better at explaining things, developing characters, and showing my story rather than telling parts of it. I learned that details aren't boring, they make the story deeper a lot of times.
There's always more to learn and improve on as a writer.
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